Understanding consumer online shopping behaviour from the perspective of transaction costs

 et al.
2005, Wu and Chang 2005, Hausman and Siekpe 2009, Lee 
and Chen 2010, O'Cass and Carlson 2010, Hsu
 et al.
2011, Hsu
 et al.
2012, Gao and Bai 
2014), and visits to the service provider in a physical (i.e. offline) service location (Skadberg 
and Kimmel 2004). In another study of flow in the context of online searching (Mathwick 
and Rigdon 2004), flow appeared to enhance consumers’ attitude toward online retailers and 
the brands they offered. 
2.3.2.5 Social and Psychological Characteristics 
Prior studies have suggested that social and psychological variables play major roles in 
purchasing behaviour, evaluation, and decision making processes (San Martín and Herrero 
2012, Lysonski and Durvasula 2013). These variables are mainly derived from psychological 
theories such as TPB and TAM
(Davis 1989, Ajzen 1991)
. Many studies have revealed that 
favourable attitudes towards online shopping are positively associated with online shopping 
intention and actual purchase (Van der Heijden
 et al.
2003, Ahn
 et al.
2004, Sorce
 et al.
2005, 
Yang
 et al.
2006, Ahn
 et al.
2007, Crespo
 et al.
2009, Ha and Stoel 2009, Hausman and 
Siekpe 2009, Hernandez
 et al.
2009, Lee 2009a, Lee 2009b, Khare and Rakesh 2011, 
Mazaheri
 et al.
2011, Yulihasri
 et al.
2011, Kim 2012, Andrews and Bianchi 2013).
In addition, favourable attitudes toward the internet (Grazioli and Jarvenpaa 2000, Sim and 
Koi 2002), catalogue retailing (Cho 2004), marketing and advertising (Donthu and Garcia 
1999) and online services (Mazaheri
 et al.
2011) were also found to lead to a greater adoption 
of online shopping. Similarly, favourable behavioural intention to use is reported to have a 
positive impact on the actual usage of online shopping (Limayem
 et al.
2000, Shim
 et al.
2001, Chen
 et al.
2002, Young and Stoel 2004, Khare and Rakesh 2011). Commitment to the 

---

42
website (Park and Kim 2003), site involvement (Yusniza 2007, Mazaheri
 et al.
2011) and 
satisfaction (Park and Kim 2003, Choi
 et al.
2004, Khalifa and Liu 2007, Bai
 et al.
2008, 
Park
 et al.
2012 , Yen
 et al.
2013) were also found to act as critical determinants of 
consumers’ online purchase intention and purchase behaviour.
Another important social/psychological variable that has received extensive attention from 
scholars is perceived behavioural control, which refers to an individual’s perception of 
her/his ability to perform a behaviour. Domina et al. (2012), Limayem et al. (2000), Shim et 
al. (2001), and Lee (2009a, 2009b) suggested that perceived behavioural control positively 
affects online shopping intention. Koufaris et al. (2001) pointed out that perceived control 
increases the intention of new Web customers to return, but seemingly does not influence 
repeat customers to return.
Choi and Geistfeld (2004), Clemes et al. (2013), Limayem et al. (2000), Yulihasri (2011) and 
Lee (2009a) maintained that the subjective norm of an individual (that is, perceptions of the 
feasibility of a behaviour as evaluated by referent people) positively influences her/his 
intention to purchase online, which, in turn, has a positive effect on the actual choice of 
online shopping. Al-Maghrabi and Dennis (2011) indicated a positive effect of social 
pressure on online continuance intention. Similarly, Blake et al. (2003) showed strong 
evidence that the greater the prevalence of internet shopping among one’s social network, the 
greater the frequency of online shopping. These findings were consistent with the TPB 
(Ajzen 1991) and the Triandis’ Model (1980), which could be used as guiding psychosocial 
theories for research. 

---

43
Innovativeness of consumers has received considerable attention in past research on 
consumer behaviour (Hirschman 1980, Roehrich 2004, Kim
 et al.
2012b, Truong 2013) in 
light of its relevance as a factor in the adoption of a new product (Im
 et al.
2003, Klink and 
Athaide 2010) or a purchase behaviour (Citrin
 et al.
2000). Innovativeness refers to the 
degree to which an individual is receptive to new ideas (Chang
 et al.
2005). Similar 
dimensions of innovativeness included novelty (Huang 2000), trying something new (Raijas 
2002) and being first to use new technology (Bellman
 et al.
1999). However, the results for 
the impacts of general innovativeness on online consumer behaviour were mixed. For 
example, Donthu and Garcia (1999), Limayem et al. (2000) and Sin and Tse (2002) 
confirmed a positive relationship between general innovativeness and purchase intention, 
whilst Alka Varma et al. (2000), Citrin et al. (2000), Young and Stoel (2004) and Yusniza 
(2007) claimed that such relationship appears insignificant in their studies.
In an attempt to explain the divergent findings, some studies take the view that the 
individual’s innovativeness should be domain-specific (regarding an area or a behaviour) and 
not a general characteristic of the individual’s personality (Goldsmith 2002, Hoffmann and 
Soyez 2010, San Martín and Herrero 2012). Goldsmith and Hofacker (1991) affirmed that 
innovativeness should be considered specific to a domain. Although domain-specific 
innovativeness is related to a general predisposition towards innovation, it is more predictive 
of a particular behaviour than the general conception. Multiple researchers support this 
hypothesis, highlighting the relevance of domain-specific innovativeness as a determinant of 
the adoption of a new product or behaviour (Agarwal and Prasad 1998, Hoffmann and Soyez 
2010). The literature on e-commerce shows a predominance of the concept of innovativeness 
as a domain-specific variable (Citrin
 et al.
2000, Goldsmith 2000, Goldsmith 2001, 
Goldsmith 2002). Many studies have concluded that domain-specific innovativeness has a 

---

44
significant and positive association with intention and usage of online shopping (Alka Varma
 
et al.
2000, Goldsmith 2001, Goldsmith 2002, Blake
 et al.
2003, Bigne-Alcaniz
 et al.
2008, 
San Martín and Herrero 2012). 
In addition to innovativeness, other personality variables (e.g., risk aversion, disposition to 
trust, and confidence) are reported to exert influences on online shopping behaviour. For 
example, Donthu and Garcia (1999) demonstrated that consumers who tend to minimize risk 
(risk aversion) are less likely to buy online. In contrast, consumers who are willing to take 
risks are more likely to buy online (Sim and Koi 2002, D'Alessandro
 et al.
2012). Their study 
echo Belanche et al.’s (2012b)
perspective that online shopping is riskier than traditional 
shopping. Gefen (2000) noticed that the disposition to trust (a general inclination to display 
faith in humanity and to adopt a trusting stance toward others) is positively correlated with 
the adoption of online shopping. Also, McKnight et al. (2002) asserted that the willingness to 
depend on a web vendor has a positive association with the intention to purchase online. 
Hahn and Kim (2009) addressed the influence of perceived confidence of shopping at an 
online store on consumers’ behavioural intention toward the online store in a multi-channel 
setting. The results revealed a significant and positive direct effect. However, the finding 
contradicts the results of the study by Sin and Tse (2002) who claimed that confidence had no 
significant impact on online behavioural intention.